Environmental Impact

Catherine Rowe Designs’ Impact

At Catherine Rowe Designs LTD, we are dedicated to minimising our environmental impact by adopting sustainable practices across all operations. Our commitment is one that you can be confident in to ensure the products you receive are designed, priced, manufactured and delivered in the most eco-friendly way - from the start to finish.

Nature at the heart from the start

 All of Catherine’s original illustrative drawings are inspired by nature from around the world which captures her childhood memories of West to East. As such, she has a huge passion to help protect natural habitats and continue to discover new ways in which her flourishing business can build on making eco conscious steps towards change.

 

Official Greenspark Partner 

We're proud to announce as of 2024 we are an official Earth Positive business partner of Greenspark. For every order placed, 50 plastic bottles are rescued with Plastic Bank, 3 Mangrove trees are planted in Kenya and 100kg of CO2 is offset. Click on the links to explore more about how Greenspark works to protect the environment and empower communities.

We have partnered with Plasticbank via Greenspark 

Your chosen product may also have its own Charity Partner dependant on the design. Check the product description to see if your purchase is also helping protect an endangered species.  

Primed for protection

When you truly love something as much as Catherine does nature, you want to protect it rather than cause unnecessary damage. That’s why most of the products available are made to order. This results in minimal wastage but also no holding of masses of stock with needless usage of electricity, heating and transportation.

Beautifully British 

Every item available online is designed and curated in Catherine's studio in Dorset. It is made, printed or manufactured with our carefully selected production partner based in London, UK whose sustainability and eco values reflect those of Catherine Rowe Designs.

Catherine at work in her studio 

The Wonderful Web

While Catherine is often commissioned privately, all her own collections are launched and marketed online so there’s no printing and distribution of heavy pattern books. Lookbooks and communications are all digital.

People 

At Catherine Rowe Designs we are strongly against child exploitation & unethical practices within manufacturing and production. At our partner workshop in London, we have artisan sewers and print technicians working a fair day for fair pay. 

Everybody at our London workshop has chosen to be here. They don’t have to sew to survive. We only employ adults under a proper, fair contract and pay everyone a fixed wage. 

Expert sewers at work in our London Partner Workshop 

Materials and eco inks 

All of the paper used is sourced from sustainable forests and responsibly manufactured in small batches at the London production house. When the designs are printed they are done so using water based, non-toxic inks. An eco-friendly print process means no contaminants of any kind enter the water course. If for any reason there are unwanted post-manufacture fabrics and garments, they are safe for recycling, up-cycling or donation to the local clothes bank which is a major tick for Catherine.

certified eco-inks used for our wallpaper and fabric

The elements and energy

 As a business, Catherine Rowe Designs is extremely conscious about how water and power is used as a requirement and how this can be decreased. Processing and production of products are therefore water-free. This is something Catherine is proud of as the many other businesses in the fabric printing industry-wide are forced to use water unnecessarily.

Electricity continues to be the biggest energy requirement for Catherine Rowe Designs and she continues to make eco-switches where possible. Industrial machinery and heat processing is used to produce the vast array of products. However, this is activated in a way that’s super efficient. Machines are powered via timers and consumption diversity is staggered to work within a tolerance bandwidth. The result is that costs are kept lower and consumption is managed so it’s used only when required. 

 

Our partner workshop in London

 Products that look and do good

Catherine is committed to creativity that can thrive in a sustainable way, she champions re-wearability too and so where there is waste, it is recycled. In the interest of transparency the brand has three main types of waste, here’s how it’s managed:

Paper, cardboard and plastic packaging

Catherine Rowe Designs makes every effort to separate waste from non-recyclables and these items are recycled by the local authority.   

Scrap wood and metal from packaging and pallets

These items are collected and recycled by local companies.

Fabric offcuts and remnants

Fabric offcuts and remnants are donated to a number of fabric recycling companies in the UK as well as charities, schools, colleges & universities. Where possible the company reuses offcuts and remnants as fillings, linings or trim for other products, meaning very little goes to waste. 

 By choosing Catherine Rowe Designs, you’re playing a significant part in helping create a sustainable, green future. Thank you so much and the team is here to handle any questions or queries you may have at info@catherinerowedesigns.com.